Kiwanis Club of Richmond supports healthy relationship skills for youth
For implementing healthy relationship skills programs to youth, First Things First of Greater Richmond received a $5,000 gift from the Kiwanis Club of Richmond on July 29, 2013. At their weekly meeting held at the Virginia Historical Society, Kiwanis Vice President Mark Atchison presented a large check to First Things First Executive Director Truin Huntley
(photo attached).
In 2012 and 2013, First Things First facilitators taught healthy relationship skills to hundreds of at-risk teens in Henrico schools, Richmond Public Schools, Camp Diva, Peter Paul Development Center in Church Hill and Beaumont Juvenile Detention Center.
The national, best-practice curriculum taught by First Things First, Relationship Smarts, teaches self-awareness, maturity, values, how to handle peer pressure and conflict resolution. The curriculum provides knowledge, guidelines and skills for how to build positive relationships that don’t include sex, but encourages students to finish their education, begin working, and get married prior to bearing children.
In the greater Richmond area, the teen pregnancy rate for females ages 10 to 17 dropped considerably since 2000. In 2010, 486 teens ages 10 to 17 became pregnant, compared to 858 teens in 2000.
Teen pregnancies are associated with a range of negative outcomes for teen mothers and their children. The negative impacts include a lack of prenatal care, a greater chance of a second teen pregnancy, high risk of health problems for the baby and mother, a high risk of health problems for both mother and child, low educational fulfillment, and a high risk of lifelong poverty for both mother and child. (Data: United Way of Greater Richmond and Petersburg).
“I’m hoping this can become a greater partnership, says Marc McGahee, past president of the Kiwanis Club and board member at First Things First of Greater Richmond. “I feel that the youth programs of First Things First focus on upstream, core problems that impact the root issues we are facing in society, he says. “It’s not the cure-all, but the point is that if we don’t start somewhere, we will never get there.”
First Things First of Greater Richmond is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to strengthening families for a better community. Our three primary focuses are: encouraging healthy marriages; connecting dads with their kids; and teaching youth relationship skills.
The mission of the Kiwanis Club of Richmond is to improve the quality of life for children in the metropolitan area of Richmond by contributing the time and talents of the membership and the financial resources of the Club in an atmosphere of caring, service, fellowship and learning.
